Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Ok, let's talk film. Man of Steel leaps tall, best when grounded By Jeff Cooper Early in the new superman movie when young Clark Kent begins to feel his heightened super senses; he tells his mother that he perceives the world as too big. His mother, delicately played with by Diane Lane, tells the young superhero to simply make the world small. As Zack Snyder’s new take on the superman approaches its final act, relying on big sets and cartoonish action, it becomes obvious that the movie works best on a smaller scale. The film opens on Krypton where like the previous films have shown is about to be destroyed by an exploding core and the only hope for the race to survive is to send Jor-El’s newborn son to earth. British actor Henry Cavil takes on the cape and is very convincing and likable as the new Superman. Like the great Christopher Reeve, he brings much humanity to the role and sells the duality of superhero and small town boy. Its part of the core cannon that remains unchanged, writers David Goyer and Christopher Nolan of the new Dark Knight series have taken liberties with the material like they did with Batman have instilled more thinking man intricate details to the core story, but left many common denominators, like Clarks upbringing and his relationship with Lois Lane intact. Man of Steel works best as a smaller film. The Kansas backdrop and small, intricate scenes with down to earth parents in the form of Kevin Costner and Lane give the film its heartfelt foundation. In fact all the dialogue scenes in the film make the 2 and a half hour experience watchable. But, like any big blockbuster summer film, small doesn’t fill theater seats. That’s when the high-flying action breaks the mood of the film and leaves most interesting scenes on the ground. Most good hero films, super or normal Joe, gains their strength from a worth adversary. Here, its hard to argue against Michael Shannon as General Zod, a surviving krypotinan, who along with a small gang of red sun dwellers are hell-bent on finding the son of Jor-el. Its safe to say as soon as the confrontations begin, the movie has only one place to go- mass destruction and chaos. Director Zack Snyder is a hit or miss director who last efforts were the very good Dawn of the Dead remake to the serviceable 300 and Watchmen and include the lackluster Sucker Punch. There is no doubt from his filmography that he, like Bryan Singer, is best with smaller, focused material. Here, Man of Steel has both, though less would be more here.

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